Law of Armed Conflict (LOAC)
600 Articles
Autonomous Weapons Debate: Three issues for further consideration
As recently reported by Sarah Knuckey and Bonnie Docherty, the “Certain Conventional Weapons (CCW) Informal Meeting of Experts on Lethal Autonomous Weapons Systems” was held…
The President’s Speech, Al Qaeda and the Legal Challenge of the Future
One of the most striking features of President Obama’s 28 May 2014 commencement address at West Point was its “turning the page” theme. The speech sought to look at the major…
Targeting Transparency: A Call for DoD to Automatically Release Investigations of Civilian Casualties in Armed Conflict
There has been much discussion on the lack of demonstrable government follow through after President Obama’s 2013 claims of increased transparency of US lethal targeting of suspected…
Taking on “Killer Robots”
New weapons that could revolutionize killing are on the horizon. Lethal autonomous weapons systems, also called fully autonomous weapons or “killer robots,” would go beyond…
United States War Crimes Statute & Sri Lanka
Ryan Goodman’s post on Sri Lanka calls for the prosecution under U.S. law of Gotabaya Rajapaksa. In prior posts, we’ve discussed the way in which international crimes (including…
Sri Lanka’s Greatest War Criminal (Gotabaya) is a US Citizen: It’s Time to Hold Him Accountable
Monday, May 19th marks the five-year anniversary of the end of Sri Lanka’s civil war, which claimed the lives of 40,000 to 70,000 civilians in its “catastrophic”…
Governments Conclude First (Ever) Debate on Autonomous Weapons: What Happened and What’s Next
This week at the United Nations in Geneva, the 117 states parties to the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons (CCW) held the first inter-governmental debate on autonomous…
The Limits of the Logic that the Power to Kill includes the Power to Detain
I will soon have a longer post on the UK High Court judgment in Mohammed v. Ministry of Defense, but here I want to consider a specific argument that implicates the authority of…
Do women have anything to say about autonomous weapons? [Updated on October 25, 2016]
Update (October 25, 2016) — Mary Wareham of the Campaign to Stop Killer Robots maintains a regularly updated “Binder of Women,” listing the names and bios of…
Start of first inter-governmental expert meeting on autonomous weapons
Today, the 117 states parties to the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons (CCW) held their first expert meeting on lethal autonomous weapons systems – weapons that can…
Developments on Autonomous Weapons Systems Governance
For Just Security readers following the emerging debate on the legal governance of autonomous weapons systems (AWS), this month is very eventful with two noteworthy developments…
How We Read a NYTimes Story on Drone Strikes in Yemen
In this post, we’re trying something new. Below, we present an almost line-by-line annotation of yesterday’s New York Times story on US and Yemeni military operations in…